Microsoft is not irrelevant by any stretch of the imagination. However, it’s also not the dominating, omnipotent colossus that it was 10 years ago, when it was impossible to imagine personal computers running on anything other than Windows. Nowadays, of course, personal computing is more than desktop and laptop PCs — it’s also smartphones, tablets and even wearable computers. Andreessen Horowitz analyst Benedict Evans on Friday posted a chart on Twitter that shows us exactly when Microsoft’s time as the tech industry’s dominant player came to an end.
FROM EARLIER: The best thing about the iPhone 6s
Relevance pic.twitter.com/LmYYpmLwfn
— Benedict Evans (@benedictevans) October 2, 2015
In short, the chart above shows Microsoft’s total share of personal computer device sales over time. In June of 2007, the year the first iPhone launched, Microsoft had close to a 100% share of the personal computing market. Four years later, in June of 2011, that share had plummeted to 50%. It’s been all downhill from there, as iOS and Android have broadened the reach of web-connected computers while Microsoft’s efforts to make it in the smartphone market have fallen flat.
Again, none of this means that Microsoft is irrelevant: Desktop and laptop computers are hugely important and Windows is still the No. 1 platform on those machines. But it no longer rules over the tech world and its reign ended in the summer of 2011.
